Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Pope Francis Gets it Right

This quote is from nearly a year ago but I just ran across it recently. Links here and here.Despite the fact that this pope is the head of a male-dominated and privileged colossus that has ruled virtually unchanged for centuries, he is slowly but surely making inroads in the right direction.Read what he says about current economic theory:

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” Francis wrote in the papal statement. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

“Meanwhile,” he added, “the excluded are still waiting.”

Then read this, from the pope's same statement last November. The bolding is mine:

In his most authoritative writings as pontiff, Francis decried an “idolatry of money” in secular culture and warned that it would lead to “a new tyranny.” But he reserved a large part of his critique for what he sees as an excessively top-down Catholic Church hierarchy, calling for more local governance and greater inclusiveness — including “broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church.”